Mar 22, 2011

Riding Hood does fable justice and nothing else

Can someone please punch Catherine Hardwicke in the throat and tell her Twilight is soooo 2010? She was the only downside to Red Riding Hood.

Let me start out by saying the film centers around Valerie (Amanda Seyfreid). She is in love with her childhood friend Pete but her family has arranged a marriage with a wealthy young man, Henry. A wearwolf has been terrorizing their village and prevents Valerie and Pete from eloping when it kills Valeries sister. The rest of the movie focuses around the destruction of the werewolf.

First of all, the actual fable has so much potential. It needs to be an R rated thriller with twists and turns and NO SAPPY LOVE STORY! The fable is not a love story! It's an anti love story. It's a hidden message of a girl that gets raped when she lets a strange man/wolf talk her into doing something she shouldn't.

Hardwicke does a terrible job directing since the only thing I can think is, is this Twilight? It's even got some of the same actors as Twilight! I will say that she does an admirable job sticking ot the framework of the fable. I was able to deduce the wolf by remembering what comes next in the story.

However, I was sorely dissapointed with the rest of the film. It had so much potential and just fell by the waste side. Even lovely Seyfreid couldn't save it because of Hardwicke's directing ignorance.